The leader of the Cockroach Janta party (CJP) youth movement, Abhijeet Dipke, was detained by police on Friday and then later formally arrested as authorities cracked down on fresh anti-government protests in the Indian capital.
Dipke was detained before a planned Friday evening demonstration he had called in central Delhi, urging supporters of the movement to come out and hold up the Indian flag.
On Saturday local media reported he was arrested “to prevent a breach of the peace”, with broadcasters NDTV and India Today saying he would be called before a special executive magistrate later in the day.
The Cockroach movement initially emerged back in May as online satire, but has since grown into one of the most substantial challenges to the powerful Modi government over its ۱۲-year rule.
Alongside student groups and opposition parties, its supporters have in the past month been out on the streets across India’s biggest cities calling for the resignation of the chief election commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, who is accused of overseeing a revision of India’s electoral rolls that allegedly favours the ruling Narendra Modi government with the deletion of ۱۳۰m names. The election commission and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) deny the claims.
The authorities, particularly in Delhi, have met the recent protests with a draconian crackdown, including bans on public gatherings, the deployment of tens of thousands of police, and detentions of thousands last weekend.
Friday’s protest was called by Dipke after the arrest and jailing of two of his fellow CJP leaders, Saurav Das and Ashutosh Ranka. They were sentenced to five days in jail this week for jumping police barricades and holding a brief protest – including waving the Indian flag – at a site recently restricted by police for demonstrations in Delhi.
At a press conference on Thursday, Dipke condemned the “repressive” attempts to silence the CJP movement and called on supporters to come out and show Narendra Modi “that we are not afraid”. He added: “If waving the Indian national flag lands you in jail, we are ready.”
Delhi police had once again taken extreme measures to try to prevent Friday’s demonstration, due to be held at a park in a busy commercial centre in the heart of Delhi, from going ahead. Police were deployed en masse to the area and a police notice was sent to Dipke instructing him to call off the protest. The Delhi local authority also shut down the park where the protest was due to take place.
When Dipke refused to call it off, police detained him en route, just as people began to assemble for the protest. In videos captured of his arrest, the CJP leader was seen holding an Indian flag aloft and saying: “I have not broken any law right now … how can you detain me?” as he was led away by dozens of police officers.
In a post after his detention, the CJP posted on social media: “This government is so scared of the youth waving national flag.”
Neha Bora, a student leader who has become a figurehead of the protests, was also detained on Friday as she began a march in the centre of the capital.
Despite Dipke’s detention, about ۲,۰۰۰ protesters still gathered and unfurled flags at the protest around Delhi’s Connaught Place. Among them was ۲۳-year-old Sanna, who said the brutal police crackdown on peaceful protests over recent weeks demonstrated that India was “on a pathway to dictatorship under the Modi government”.
“We are only out here to peacefully hold up the Indian flag and they treat us as if we are criminals, not citizens exercising our democratic rights,” she said. “Gyanesh Kumar must resign, and no matter what the police do, detaining us or crushing our skulls, we still won’t stop protesting until he is gone.”
Smaller protests also took place in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Patna on Friday.
The BJP has claimed that the Cockroach movement and the political opposition alliance have been holding protests to cause “anarchy” in the country. “Their sole intention is to stage a coup in the country,” said the BJP’s national spokesperson, Sambit Patra.
The authorities have also gone to unusual lengths to punish figures who have been seen at the recent protests calling for Kumar’s resignation.
In Mumbai, the Bollywood actor Imran Khan was given a notice to leave the country after he was detained by police while attending a demonstration last weekend. Khan, who holds a US passport, was told to leave the country by the end of the month, an order he is now challenging in the courts.
